Decolonial Marxism: Essays from the Pan-African Revolution

by Walter Rodney

A previously unpublished collection of Rodney's essays on Marxism, spanning his engagement with of Black Power, Ujamaa Villages, and the everyday people who put an end to a colonial era Early in life, Walter Rodney became a major revolutionary figure in a dizzying range of locales that traversed the breadth of the Black diaspora: in North America and Europe, in the Caribbean, and on the African continent. He was not only a witness of a Pan-African and socialist internationalism; in his efforts to build mass organizations, catalyze rebellious ferment, and theorize an anti-colonial path to self-emancipation, he can be counted among its prime authors. In drawing together pages where he elaborates on the nexus of race and class, offers his reflections on radical pedagogy, outlines programs for newly independent nation-states, considers the challenges of anti-colonial historiography, and produces balance sheets for a dozen wars for national liberation, this volume captures something of the range and power of Rodney's output. But it also demonstrates the unbending consistency that unites his life and work: the ongoing reinvention of living conception of Marxism, and a respect for the still untapped potential of mass self-rule.

Genres: Politics, Nonfiction, History, Africa, Theory, Philosophy, Essays

304 pages, Hardcover

Published November 16, 2021

About the author

In his short life, the Guyanese intellectual Walter Rodney emerged as one of the leading thinkers and activists of the anticolonial revolution, leading movements in North America, the African continent, and the Caribbean. In each locale, Rodney found himself a lightning rod for working class Black Power. His deportation catalyzed twentieth-century Jamaica’s most significant rebellion, the 1968 Rodney riots, and his scholarship trained a generation how to think politics at an international scale. In 1980, shortly after founding of the Working People’s Alliance in Guyana, the 38-year-old Rodney was assassinated.

Reviews

[Zach Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

The assembly of topics here is stunning - he starts with a justification for talking about Marxism and Scientific Socialism in Africa, then moves on to the effects of slavery and colonialism on the continent. He narrows in on Tanzania in particular to assess the formation of class relations and the development of Ujamaa in the post-colonial period, but he does it so rigorously and never veering away from dialectical materialism. By ending it with two brief essays on transition and decolonization, he reminds us not only how crucial it is to study Marx, but how one can apply Marx to the African continent. One of the parts I found most interesting was how unsparing he is in his criticisms of some African leaders who consider themselves socialists but in reality only serve to maintain the (neo)colonial apparatus, and in doing so he brilliantly documents how the transition from colonialism to decolonial marxism can hit a snag at a neocolonial state. By effortlessly weaving in Fanon's theories from Wretched of the Earth, he also introduces a great discussion about nationalism and the emergence of a national bourgeoisie. This is one of the best books to come out this year, and it's something we all need to read and read again.

[Talia · Rating 5 out of 5]

he has done it again! such clear and digestible analysis. rodney is prob one of my fav historians to read, witty yet scathing

[Tanroop · Rating 4 out of 5]

As always with Rodney, this is refreshingly clear and radical. As always with Rodney's posthumous works, because of his murder at the hands of the Guyanese state, it cannot but feel unfinished, in a sense. They were the lectures, speeches, works-in-progress of a great guerrilla intellectual, cut down in his prime. It's frustrating to think about how much more he could have contributed, how much more we could all learn from his perspective. Nonetheless, in his absence, turning to his unpublished works is still a fruitful and generative endeavour.

The essays here cover a really huge scope, and the only real unifying theme is Rodney's application of Marxism to Pan-African and Third World realities. Of particular interest, for me, was the final section where Rodney deals with the experiments with Ujaama socialism in Tanzania, the contradictions of 'transition' in post-colonial states, and the meaning of 'decolonization' in a world rife with neo-colonialism. Another favourite of mine was "Marxism as a Third World Ideology".

A great read!

[Jim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another brilliantly detailed and immensely deep piece of Marxist scholarship from Walter Rodney. I love history, and I found it fascinating to read this and be able to consider Rodney's arguments, assessments, and projections - made in the later 1/3 of the 20th century - based on the current situation in Africa. Like most serious world problems, not much has changed at all. Africa, while slightly better off now than it was at the time of these writings, has fallen even further behind the rest of the countries of the world. Unsurprisingly, if you follow Rodney's arguments about the threats that Marxism brings to Capitalism. Not that these are negatives for me, as I am a firm believer that Capitalism has destroyed much of the world's people - and much of the planet - and is a system that absolutely must be overcome if humans are to survive, let alone thrive, as a species. One could argue the book is too hopeful but that would be based entirely on knowing much of what Rodney hoped for has not come to pass, and that things are actually getting worse for nearly everyone, everywhere, not just Africans, or in Africa. An extremely intelligent analysis and explanation of theory and on-the-ground reality (at the time, at least). I, for one, hope for a true revolution that rids the world of capitalists and capitalism. Our current state of affairs is unbelievably dire and I have no doubts those in power will not give up their gains without force being applied, directly. Rodney writes with a fire that just may start a conflagration...

[bbbassel · Rating 5 out of 5]

For a collection of essays, this book tells a great story. Over 16 essays, Walter Rodney applies Marxist ideas to African history. He talks about education, trade, slavery, (under-)development, political struggles, and the essence of socialism. He constantly refers to a lot of things I don’t know about (in a way that encourages reading about all these histories and figures) but always states his main points in general and clear terms.

I said the book tells a great story, and it does so by ordering the essays in a way that makes sense: you get Marxist theory first, then underdevelopment, then stuff from the colonial period, and finally you end with some stuff on making the transition to socialism and decolonizing. But most of the essays were written about a particular movement or in a particular context. I would have liked to have a few sentences mentioning that at the beginning of each essay. At least the date of publication or writing, which is unfortunately never given (sometimes you can figure it out through context cues).

For someone who was interested in Marxism and African history (and colonial history in general) this was a great introductory text. I’m hoping to read more on these topics in the coming year.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Decolonial Marxism is timeless. The lessons that Rodney deciphers from studying colonial history and struggles for decolonization in the Caribbean and in Africa ring just as true today as they did way back when. Though many of the projects Rodney praises and critiques in this book (socialist Mozambique and Ujamaa Tanzania in particular) have long since died, their ghosts live on. Projects like the Communes in Venezuela and the ‘21st Century Socialism’ of other Latin American states in particular seem plagued by the same errors that Rodney foresaw in Africa almost 50 years ago. This book is called Decolonial Marxism for a reason, and it’s because Marxism (Scientific Socialism) must necessarily play a crucial role in the process of decolonization, otherwise your “decolonization” will be in name only. History has proven this.
Study the contractions, give all power to the working people, liquidate the petty bourgeoisie, and long live African revolution.

[Dan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rodney is, as always, essential reading for the modern Marxist. Much like Amilcar Cabral, his ability to apply a historical materialist analysis to the post colonial states in Africa with a ruthlessly critical eye is incredible. His analysis of Tanzania in particular stands as a great example for revolutionaries on how to examine the class nature of a concrete society in a given historical conjuncture in order to develop a revolutionary path forward.

Great stuff everyone should read it!

[iz]

i aim to be big brain enough to understand all of this book, but alas, not yet

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rodney writes with such remarkable clarity and incision that this is really one of the most engaging volumes of political theory I've ever read. I don't have much to say about it that hasn't already been written by many smarter people, but every Marxist should read Rodney, as well as anyone interested in modern African history, especially African neocolonialism. Whether it be this book or his most famous How Europe Underdeveloped Africa is really up to you.

The only criticism I have of this book is probably a quibble yet it seems like such a glaring omission that I'm subtracting a star: there is nowhere in the Verso edition any indication of when these speeches or writings were produced. Not on the copyright page, not in the TOC, not as a brief footnote at the beginning of each piece, not in the forward, nowhere. If you want to know when he said these things you'll have to either guess based on the dates discussed in the particular piece or do your own research outside of this book, which feels pretty ludicrous to me. How could nobody think to add a simple date?

Anyway, still great, still you should read it.

Not Bad Reviews

[Kudzai Sithole · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really changed the way I look at Africa, imperialism, underdevelopment and world history. Super valuable for anyone interested in Africa’s relationship to the rest of world in the 20th century and gives food for thought on the way forward for Africa.

[Autumn Riehemann]

going to read this but want to own it so i can highlight so it's going back on my want to read list cause maybe ill own it another time

[Jasmine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although this has a 2022 publication date, these essays are more than forty years older. The world has changed quite a bit in forty years -- most relevantly for this book, the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formation of a unipolar global order under the control of the US, the rise in neoliberalism, and a maturation of neocolonialism. The most unique parts of the book is its careful studies of class relationships in Guyana, Tanzania and other countries in the global south (woefully understudied in western writing). However, because the information was all rather out of date, I felt I was missing part of the picture. Why did these projects fail, and could we have foreseen why? How should decolonial marxist theory update itself in light of these developments? Is the answer indeed a stronger central state, of which Rodney was critical, but which has proven successful at developing the productive forces and holding off the imperial core in countries like China?

Where tourism and education and the petty bourgeoisie of the colonized world were all analyzed in great detail, the mechanisms of how the imperial core controls the imperial periphery felt a little unclear. Sometimes, Rodney appeared to give way to attributing actions to a sort of evil, power-hungry manipulation by the colonial powers. I understand that can be an easy shorthand for the impersonal domination of capital, however I think understanding the mechanisms and rhetoric used is helpful for recognizing it in action.

The more timeless parts of the book were the essays on scientific socialism as an ideology of national liberation (Chapters 3-5). These were a good complement to Losurdo's Class Struggle, which I read at the same time. They also contain this classic quote that I had read previously:

In the English tradition, which was also handed down to this part of the world, to the Caribbean, to many parts of Africa, it is fashionable to disavow any knowledge of Marxism. It is fashionable to glory in one's ignorance, to say that we are against Marxism. When pressed about it one says - but why bother to read it? It is obviously absurd. So one knows it is absurd without reading it and one doesn't read it because one knows it is absurd, and therefore one glories in one's ignorance of the position.

[danny · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this for a book club outside of school, and I can easily say it is the best work that can be characterized as "postcolonial studies" that I have encountered since starting a postcolonial studies Masters at SOAS. Which is pretty sad, since I wasn't exposed to any Walter Rodney in my program's curriculum, despite his prominence in the field and as, yknow, an alumnus of my school. Which is well enough, because I'm sure Rodney wouldn't want to be associated with what SOAS has become, anyway. But I digress.

In addition to being my introduction to Rodney, whose work I am now quite interested in delving into, this was also one of the more explicit works of Marxist analysis I have engaged with, as someone with quite radical politics who nevertheless shies away from self-identification as a Marxist and all of the connotations that go along with it. I think Rodney makes Marxism here seem as urgent and compelling as any other writer I have encountered, and certainly a lot more so than those who take Marxist analysis primarily as a tool for understanding culture. Rodney is quite the opposite, returning to the scientific and rigorous connotations of scientific socialism, and using Marxism as a methodology to understand the dynamics of development, labor, international trade, and imperialism in post-colonial and decolonizing Africa.

Now this book as a whole is not a unified work, composed as it is of essays collected after Rodney's death, and apparently titled "Decolonial Marxism" somewhat in contradiction of his family's will. So the essays themselves naturally touch on different topics, are directed towards different audiences, and build on each other to varying degrees, often hitting on the same points (his admiration of Amilcar Cabral, for example, or praise for Tanzanian Ujamaa).

It would take a far more rigorous response paper to summarize all of the various points I found interesting in this book - not to mention from the anti-imperialist reading group with which I read it - but a few of the things I spent the most time thinking about were:

- How Rodney is able to bring Marxism as a methodology into the present day, using it to analyze cases - such as colonial Guyana or post-colonial Uganda - that Marx would never have encountered. The feeling that this kind of thinking and analysis - looking around the present moment and analyzing the balance of economic and political forces - is more needed today than endless historical studies on techniques of shipping in the triangle trade in the 18th century, for example.

- How Rodney connects questions of political independence with economic independence in colonial and post-colonial states, and in particular how he criticizes liberation movements or Marxist groups in anti-colonial societies for not paying enough attention to that interrelation.

- Rodney's thoughts on education, and in particular his description of the Tanzanian education system.

- His overall argument about underdevelopment, which made want to read his most famous book How Europe Underdeveloped Africa

- How his analysis of the politics and economic constraints of anti-colonial movements applies to Palestine today, and in particular the way that neoliberal economic structures have permeated the West Bank and the Palestinian Authority, tying the economic interests of a small elite comprador class to the general system of international neo-colonial economics.

Anyway I don't think I'm smart enough to really understand Rodney, let alone summarize him, but I was very grateful for the opportunity to engage with his work in a structured way and I would encourage everyone to join an anti-imperialist reading group if they can!

[bou · Rating 5 out of 5]

Many revolutionaries have completed Marx before. Lenin had for Russia, and Mao for China. Marxists of the Marxist-Leninist and Maoist camps have long tried to export and introduce their respective ideologies to other liberation movements as if it were a sacred and immovable text. Rodney attacks this rigid thinking. The Soviet and Western European models of Marxism are inapplicable to the African context. Whereas these regions were interested in uplifting their industrial working class, no such economic class category existed in Africa which, at the beginning of its exploitative contact with Europe, was not capitalist and didn't even have a proto-feudal presence. So how can working classes be uplifted if there isn't one? Rodney beautifully recounts the brilliance of Amilcar Cabral.

Instead of projecting a traditional working-class onto his people, Cabral translated Marxism to his own national and historical context. Cabral identified the most marginalized people in his nation and, as a traditional Western Marxist would of the working class, mobilized this group. A principled Marxist is one who reconfigures Marxism to better suit their people. Rodney does not distort history to better suit his argument and confronts reality with brutal honesty. Haloed African leaders are not unanimously praised and he sharply pinpoints their mistakes and failures. Liberation movements that many would deem to be "socialist" are exposed as petty bourgeois, reactionary, and outright copies of the European colonial system just with black face.

The thesis of this book is simply don't be a dogmatist. The truth hurts, but liberation feels better.

[Bafta · Rating 4 out of 5]

The essays are all great and deserve 5 stars. I deducted one star because the title is misleading, as Rodney says in this very book a lot of things that contradict Decolonial theory so this seems to be an appropriation from the publishers that does not fit Rodney’s own methodology. In his engagement with Marxism Rodney does not see it as Eurocentric but a methodology that can be applied irrespective of time and space thus for him there is no need to synthesize it with another tradition. It would also been more helpful if the essays had dates and context of publication, because everyone familiar with Rodney’s work can tell that they were written at different times of his political development though here they are presented not in chronological order.

[Brian Mcquaid · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rodney speaks brilliantly on how class struggle and worker-alliance control of the state is necessary for nominally independent African states to establish non exploitative social relations. He argues that Marxism is a necessary tool in this fight. These essays are as relevant today as they were in the 70s when they were written.

[JC Sevart · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of essays about various decolonial and varieties of socialism in post-colonial states. His analysis of class in Tanzania is extremely insightful and his history of labor in colonized states is particularly fascinating.

[gloire en espagnol · Rating 4 out of 5]

i learned so much but i’m kinda sad bc i read it on my kindle and i highlighted sm quotes and my kindle just died so :(((
some essays were kind of hard to follow but i was so interested with some of them, especially when talking about core marxism and stuff

[Inem · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars probably

[704graham · Rating 5 out of 5]

He really doesn’t miss

[Gram · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty standard stuff still need to read How Europe Underdeveloped Africa I think I’d find it more engaging

[Victor Ogungbamigbe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not as enjoyable as the banger that was 'How Europe Underdeveloped Africa', and in certain areas it feels like a rehashing of some of the same topics, however Rodney is still able to hook me with his precise analysis and engaging prose. Also the first of his writing I have read which provides a window into his political project and his musings on what scientific socialism must look like to truly free the colonized.

[Brumaire Bodbyl-Mast · Rating 5 out of 5]

A collection of essays from relatively ambiguous dates by the famed Guyanese Marxist Walter Rodney which cover a variety of topics, from class struggle to historiography. Of course, as the title indicates, much of them deal with the struggles of Africans and the African Diaspora, with a particular focus on Tanzania under Nyerere and Rodney’s home country of Guyana. Most of the later half of the book deals with Tanzania and in particular the class formations there, and its system of Ujamaa, which Rodney views somewhat favorably, though goes over its many flaws. The main role of many of these essays are to fully analyze the emergent contexts of Africa in the 1970s, looking to critique in particular prefixed (i.e. Arab/African) socialisms, and critique much of the Pan African movement. Other essays are summaries of concepts expounded upon in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, and so the reader should look there for some of the more historical materialist questions brought up by this book. Overall a great collection of essays, though some dating (even if approximate) on them would be nice.

[Adam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Errs towards repetitiveness due to the structure of the book and overlapping topics of the essay, but Rodney's knowledge and insight shines through. Individually all of the essays offer critique of postcolonial conditions and shine multiple different lights on the reality of neocolonialism - though I imagine most people interested in this book are familiar with many of its brutal contours already.

I found the essays on education to be particularly worthwhile.

[KC Cui · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow getting through the first few chapters but once you get Rodney at work applying theory to real-time analysis it’s incredible to see. I feel like I learned so much in the last 25 pages or so. I loved the analysis of socialism building in Tanzania and comparisons across post colonial situations

[Adel · Rating 5 out of 5]

brilliant thinker and writer

[Kim ☭ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Slow at times, but worth it. I picture Walter Rodney as the serious, quiet kid in class who one day blurts out something hysterical and out-of-the-blue, which means he's good.

[clara · Rating 5 out of 5]

the goat

[Geena Zebrasky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is essential to understanding the political and economic foundations of modern Africa. Rodney does an excellent job of (re)contextualizing our analysis of the development of Africa, as always, as well as the application of Marxist thought and practice to different situations. I think that he points out an essential element of Marxism - that while it grew out of an analysis of the particular situation of Marx's analysis of Western Europe, this doesn't mean that it is time/location limited. He argues (and points out that Marx argues) that the whole point is that we take a historical materialist approach to any given situation, and can/must be adjusted to each (he describes a revolutionary praxis as "an ongoing social product". This is part of the reason it's so essential for anyone that considers themselves an anti-capitalist to understand how capitalism was an outgrowth of underdevelopment and other processes that Rodney covers in this book (and others). The chapter "The Historical Roots of African Underdevelopment" does a great job at presenting the history that lead up to colonization, and how the European economy was in no way a spontaneous growth - what has Europe actually done independently? Economists and historians like to paint the US and Europe in a light that depicts development as something that occurred independently, when realistically it wouldn't have happened without violence on a world scale that's ongoing (he makes a good comment on violence in the book as well). He covers how capitalism and the development of the Western world is based upon a foundation of underdevelopment globally (which he describes in much more depth in How Europe Underdeveloped Africa, but does a good job synthesizing and clarifying here). Trade was utilized to undercut development, and subordination and dependence on foreign capital was established before colonization explicitly did this. Rodney provides specific and clear examples, and is just an overall excellent writer throughout - he's well researched in his claims and it's not jargony or hard to understand. There's a great chapter on the linkage between slavery and underdevelopment as well, and how this was transformed over time - it's also a good thing to read before he goes into what it really means to decolonize, and if decolonization has even occurred - in the sense that satellite and dependent states were established after "independence" was achieved. He also writes extensively about what "development" really means - and can it be achieved on the African continent, in the sense of a Western "development"? (Hint: no, and we wouldn't want this anyway, because it would be fundamentally exploitative). Also, he challenges the idea of "freedom" and "democracy" as exported via the US and other international (western) orgs - which I find crucial - what is democracy if it's actually just the protection of capital? Towards the end, he goes into his analysis of Tanzania (where he taught), establishing and analyzing an education that isn't Western and actually is beneficial to African people, and he does a good job of providing examples throughout beyond this that both help demonstrate how to apply a Marxist/revolutionary approach to transition and decolonization, which he describes as "social policy directed by the working class" and "a total strategy for liberation that encompasses a control of the material resources". Anyway, there's a lot I didn't cover, but this is another great and revealing book by Rodney - really fundamental to a radical and real education.

[Yousif Elbeltagy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Walter Rodney completes Marx; this isn't an overstatement but rather the natural progression of scientific and revolutionary theory. It's hard to fully describe the profound impact this book has had on my way of thinking. While the need to constantly update revolutionary theory to keep pace with changing material reality is important, I believe ideological consistency is equally important. Rodney rightfully critiques the Non-Aligned movement and some of the independence-era leadership for their shallow modes of thinking that believed that beyond Imperial occupation, class dynamics didn't exist in Africa. Walter Rodney explains how reactionary forces took over Africa (Ghana, Congo, Egypt, etc) before they even did because one too many leaders refused to engage with Socialist theory.

Rodney stresses the importance of developing socialist theory based on the material and historical conditions of each given society, using scientific socialism. He effectively predicted Socialism with Chinese Characteristics before it was even a thing. The need to develop theory and truly decouple from the global capitalist economy is the only path towards liberation. Rodney even points out the inherent lack of critical thinking that emerges from Western Leftists as they refuse to interact with Non-Western Leftist sources, something that successful Socialist movements have done (China, Vietnam, Cuba and Korea). In a way, I feel like he indirectly foreshadowed the collapse of European Socialism.

My review won't do justice to this book, as I can't recommend it enough. I've highlighted the entire book and added notes throughout because of how he effortlessly describes the path towards liberation and socialist revolution. In the final part, he talks about Southern Africa (Rhodesia and Apartheid South Africa) and how the measure of a truly independent country is based on who provides actual material support to armed resistance and who acts like a fifth column. While Rodney didn't live to see the liberation of Southern Africa, he basically advocates for Robert Mugabe while warning about Nelson Mandela before they entered the political mainstream.

Decolonial Marxism is still very relevant today, as Rodney explains in depth how the struggle for independence cannot be said to be over until neo-imperialism and capitalism are dismantled. Paper independence is worthless, engaging with theory and material reality to formulate genuine socialist solutions is the only path forward for true liberation.